>Certainly, Marsalis' and Crouch's approach to jazz
>is unambiguously and unapologetically located within a conscious, politically
>deliberate celebration of the cultural creativity and virtuosity of
>African-Americans.
Doesn't Marsalis really play up the high-culture angle, though, and play down what Charles mentioned, the roots of jazz in black party music? That's one of the things that bothers me about the high-seriousness of jazz cultists - it's like they're trying to deny its racial and sexual aspects to purify it for canonization.
> And certainly, attempts to marginalize the importance of
>jazz to American culture have invariably been attempts to marginalize the
>importance of African-Americans to American culture.
>
>In this respect, the latching on to Madonna as a counterpoint to jazz as a
>genre has a troubling aspect.
I picked Madonna because to a lot of people she's a symbol of popcult evil, just the bait that Carl took. If you like, substitute Public Enemy or The Coup.
Doug